Little Ave Vineyard

Tucked away in a small valley on the River Ave, lies a vineyard called ‘Little Ave’. Though still in its infancy, the client wanted a label design for their first batch of orange wine.

The client had already chosen the name and like the wine itself, there were many ‘hidden notes’ involved in the naming of the brand. One of them being the geography of the vineyard itself which lies within a wapentake, a historic administrative division of the English, another being the origin of the word ‘wapentake’, meaning ‘the taking of weapons’ from its Scandinavian roots. 

Which leads us to the chosen design….

The Viking

Based on the heritage, history and meaning of the wapentake. A playful take on the Norse and Scandinavian roots that encompass Little Ave. (Sure to go down well with the locals!)

Alongside the name connotations, the brief was to create a brand which emphasised the local heritage while not appearing “stuffy” or “traditional” that would be attractive to local people who have an interest in ‘natural wine’. 

The vineyard does not use any pesticides/herbicides/fungicides and fertilisation uses organic materials such as composted animal manure and seaweed and the wine is fermented using wild yeasts (those that naturally occur in the vineyard) with no filtration or added sulphites.   

Here are the additional ideas we put forward to the client.

Organic & simple

Taking its structure from the ‘A’ in ‘Ave’, the organic, grape-like shapes
represent the many parts of the wapentake, which, when assembled together take the form of a bunch of grapes.

Elegant & minimalist

This concept focuses on stripping back the graphics to highlight the organic/natural method of which the grapes are grown. The flick of orange that can be seen in the mark relates back to where the wine is grown, in a small valley in the warpentake.

Bold & playful

This concept uses a hand drawn typeface to reflect the unique aspect of the vineyard and the natural processes used when crafting the wine. It takes the shapes of the places that make up the wapentake to create an organic, playful pattern that allows the label to stand out against traditional wine branding.